W. Crew thwarted by fishing boat

Penn finished 13th at Sprints after colliding with an abandoned boat on Lake Waramaug. It was not fatigue, or lack of strength, or lack of desire that stopped the Penn women's varsity eight from qualifying for the Petite Final of the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing College Sprints. It was the fishing boat. A private fishing boat was left abandoned in Lake Waramaug on Sunday -- right in the middle of the Quakers' lane 800 meters into the race. "We knew that it was there [on Saturday]," Penn senior captain Melinda Patterson said. "But they assured us that it would be moved. We didn't know it was still there." The obstacle took up half the lane, making it unavoidable for the Quakers. The side of Penn's boat hit the fishing boat and the Quakers quickly fell from third place to fifth. Penn made a valiant comeback attempt, but could not catch up with Navy and Cornell. The varsity boat finished in 6:37.70 -- only 1/2 second behind the Midshipmen (6:37.20) and slightly more than a second behind the Big Red (6:36.60). "The problem was we were side by side with Navy," Penn coach Barb Kirch said. "We couldn't switch lanes to get around the fishing boat." If the Quakers had finished ahead of the Navy boat, they would have qualified for the Petite final. Instead, Penn's varsity eight had to row in the third-level final. "On one level [the varsity boat rowers] were obviously frustrated," Kirch said. "But they were also extremely mature and understanding." Kirch protested the race, but to no avail. Normally, Penn would have rowed in a makeshift seventh lane in the Petite Final, but Lake Waramaug was not large enough to add another lane. Forced to compete in the third-level final, the Quakers did not sulk. "We went in there knowing we had to win and by as much as possible," Patterson said. The Quakers took the lead from the start and easily won the race in 6:16.50. The boat's time was the 10th-fastest on the day -- and more than three seconds faster than Navy's Petite Final time. But, since Penn was in the third heat of the finals, the Quakers officially finished in 13th place. Penn's second varsity boat, without unexpected obstacles in its lane, fared better than the top eight. The second eight qualified for the Grand Final by placing second in their preliminary heat. The boat then finished fifth in the final in 6:31.40, behind Radcliffe by 3.1 seconds but more than six seconds ahead of Boston University. "The Second Varsity Eight really raced to its potential," Kirch said. "That was the highlight for us." Penn had two other teams competing at New Preston, Conn., on Lake Waramaug. The first novice eight won the third-level final by more than nine seconds over Syracuse, 6:47.20 to 6:56.30. The big margin of victory was especially surprising, since Penn had posted a qualifying time that was only 1/2 second faster than the Orangewomen. Penn's second novice eight finished fourth in the Petite Final in the 11th fastest time. The boat outlasted Rutgers by 2.2 seconds to claim the fourth-place position. In composite scoring, Penn finished 13th among the 18 competing schools with 27 points. Brown won the Chick Willing points trophy with 76 points, while Princeton and Virginia tied for second with 66 points. The Bears were victorious on the strength of their three wins in the varsity and novice races -- and Brown only lost by 1/10th of a second to Virginia in the second varsity eight race.

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